Canada is holding streaming giants’ feet to the fire, a new AI program can spot COVID from a cough, and the Vatican is turning to bots for help to combat an onslaught of cyberattacks targeting its libraries.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Monday, November 8, and I’m your host Alex Coop.
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The Canadian government is proposing new policy changes to make sure online streaming giants like Netflix operate under the same rules as those faced by traditional broadcasters as streaming platforms experience booming revenues. The new bill announced by the Liberal government last week will put platforms like Netflix and Spotfiy under the Broadcasting Act through a new category called “online undertakings.” According to the CBC, the bill also proposes giving the CRTC new powers that would require broadcasters and online streaming companies to make financial contributions to support Canadian music, stories, creators and producers. It’s a move that some experts call a “long time coming.”
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Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may have found a way to identify silent coronavirus carriers without a test. Business Insider is reporting that a study published in September describes an artificial intelligence model that can distinguish between the coughs of people with the coronavirus and those who are healthy. It can even tell from voluntary, forced coughs if people were healthy or were asymptomatic carriers, based on sound variations too subtle for the human ear to discern.
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The Vatican Apostolic Library is teaming up with a cybersecurity firm to defend its precious drawings, inscriptions and ancient texts from cybercriminals. The library, which holds more than 80,000 documents of immeasurable value, is facing 100 cyber threats per month ever since it decided to digitize some of its collection in 2012, according to the Guardian.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Alex Coop, thanks for listening